2378
by Beth6787
Summary: Set during the after dinner chat at the end of the episode "Shattered". It's New Year's Eve and Chakotay has a difficult decision to make...


Beth6787

31 December y

2378...

Set during the after dinner chat at the end of 'Shattered'. It's New Year's Eve and Chakotay has a difficult decision to make...

Kathryn leaned forward and picked up her drink. She was still fishing "and it's strange to think there's a part of your life that you know nothing about...?..."

He picked up his drink, raised an eyebrow and his glass and took a sip. "That sounds a lot like the future to me..." he smiled and they clinked glasses.

"To the future, whatever surprises it may hold" and Kathryn smiled back as she relaxed into the sofa and finished her glassful.

She was happy and it was New Year's Eve 2377. Any moment now and 2378 would begin. Not that the old Terran calendar meant much out here in the DQ. Really it just served to mark off the years and lives passing that they were missing. The gulf between the past they had left behind and their new reality, out here, grower wider by the hour. But seven long years...how many more... And should he break the Temporal Prime Directive - just this once - by telling her what he knew?

They sat in silent companionship as the stars passed by the viewport, waiting the last five minutes or so to raise a final glass to the dawning of the New Year. Chakotay found his mind wandering back to the events of the last few hours. No, be honest with yourself, he admonished in his mind. There was only one scene playing over and over. Walking through the door of Astrometrics. Seeing an adult Icheb and Naomi Wildman and then the revelation that followed. They were both stunned to see two living and breathing ghosts from the distant past. He and Kathryn had died seventeen years ago in that timeframe. Which meant sometime during 2378. If what he had seen came true - and let's face it - all the past scenarios were accurate to the minutest detail - then this was to be the last New Year that either of them would ever see.

He didn't have the specifics. There had been no time, he smirked inwardly at that. No time, how ironic! But it had been implied, very strongly, that the two of them had met their end together. It had been a tragic demise, judging by the expression in Naomi's eyes. Icheb could barely face looking at them at all and he avoided eye contact with Chakotay. So now he had the weight of all the universes and cruel fate on his shoulders. He knew that they had months left : at most. And that Voyager was still on it's relentless journey through the Delta Quadrant with an adult Icheb and Naomi aboard. ...

Seventeen years and they had not had the good sense to call it a day. Settle on a hospitable M - Class planet and make a life for themselves. Any life at all. But no, with the command team gone, and seemingly no one of calibre to step up to the role - they pursued their futile mission to what? Eventual oblivion?

He looked across at Kathryn who was relaxing with her eyes half closed as she stared, subconsciously, at the star scape gliding serenely by. It seemed a shame to spoil one of her few peaceful moments but, knowing what he did, could he in good conscience say nothing? Should they not have a back up plan in place for the inevitable? Was it right for Tuvok to assume that the mission 'to make it home' was written in stone? And what of the two of them? Were they really going to die, lives in limbo, obsolete parameters from a past life still intact? What for? Who would ever know or care? Certainly not the Federation of at least two decades in the future - assuming they ever made it back at all.

Interestingly, there had been no time fragments further ahead than Astrometrics. Was that because there was not much future beyond for the ship and what did that mean? Soon after they settled somewhere and made a new life or - more likely - Voyager was vaporised by a hostile entity and they were all no more.

He was still looking at Kathryn and she had finally noticed. "Is something wrong Chakotay?"

They were a team. Always had been and , he had promised her, many years back to always stand by her side. She was his peace because together, they were one. And how could they stand together, make the right decisions together, if only one of them knew the truth. The decision made he re-filled their glasses and passed one across to her. "Kathryn, before we see in the New Year there is something I need to tell you. About what I have just experienced. We have a difficult decision ahead of us and we need to make it together..."

Afterwards, they sat in silence for a little while as Kathryn absorbed the information. No wonder he had evaded her probing earlier on. She should have known ...so the time had come. Did she hold steadfast to all their goals, their parameters...or adapt (as a certain protege of hers would say) to circumstances. To reality...

She took a last sip of her wine and turned towards him. Her port in every storm and her dearest friend. "Chakotay, we cannot be sure that that timeline will play out, though it seems likely from what you experienced - if we do nothing. So let's not. Let's make a point of doing something momentous in 2378. I promise you that if we are still out here when 2379 dawns : all bets are off. No grand plan to voyage ever onwards and..." she leans forward and placed her hand over his heart as she had so often before. But this time...she looked deeply into his eyes "no parameters. Happy New Year Chakotay."

THE END

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